Hello, community. We can help get your jobs done!

What is your church’s job? To put it another way, what do people hire your church to do? If you don't know, your could learn a lot by finding out.

These questions may sound strange at first hearing. Church ministry as a job? Hiring the church? Other than renting out the hall, what does that mean?

I am not talking about renting out space in your building. I am referring to the core mission of your church, to show God's love and demonstrate the Good News about Jesus Christ. The thing is, the people across the street, shop owners around the corner, seniors, families, and digital natives in your community likely don't have a clue what your church could do for them. What's more, your community is looking to get jobs done, lots of different jobs, jobs that will, one way or another, get done. The church has an incredible opportunity to understand and "give itself away" in authentic, transparent, and effective service in the name of Jesus Christ.

Paying attention to the spiritual and social impact of thirty-seven congregations motivated me to take closer look at a model called Jobs To Be Done. I want to understand how and why people choose, or don't choose, to go to your church? That’s worth considering, isn’t it?

Decades ago, many people could be expected to choose between multiple churches, and decide which church to attend. The category (A person who needs to go to church), or the product (I want to attend a Presbyterian church, for example) correlated to the behavior (I choose that church). Most people attended church or other place of worship many times each month. Churches just kept refining offerings based on feedback received from people who already made the decision to attend. The church leadership tried their best to meet the needs of current participants.

As it turned out, trying to meet needs is a slippery slope toward futility. Needs never end. More recently, however, people are not looking for a category like church, or even more revealing, they are not choosing between different churches. Going to church is not a task most people have on their to-do list. People are simply trying to get stuff done in their lives, and their jobs-to-be-done prompt them to hire products, services, and activities that get those jobs accomplished.

Lets discover with greater resolution what jobs that person or family needs done and think how their hiring your ministry suddenly makes sense to them. What could they hire your church to do?

Thinking about congregational ministry as an example, the jobs-to-be-done might include: “get involved in the community,“ or ”help me understand God better,“ or ”give me an opportunity to feel better about myself,“ or ”find a place my family can feel safe,“ or “help me be more successful in my relationships.” or ”show me how to invest my interests in something worthwhile."

If we paid better attention to the spiritual and social impact of our activities (programs, services, ministries, etc.), we might learn what neighbors, families, and communities need to get done. Instead of incrementally improving our activities, worshipping communities of every size would express their core mission as a servant in the community context. Being more attentive results in being more deeply connected, so that the church actually serves through its services. Could the Jobs To Be Done framework help revolutionize your mission? I think it could.

Jesus told us, "Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. You will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father… (John 14:12–14). The Jobs To Be Done framework pushes the church forward to look at its mission in higher resolution. These connections of mission and context results in deeper satisfaction experienced by those who are served, a greater sense of energy felt by those serving, and greater impact on the world.

Hello Community, Hire Us! We can help get your jobs done!

What do you hire your church to do? What jobs need to get done in your community?